the countdown to the next winter olympics begins it's exactly one year until russia hosts its first ever winter games promised to become the most unique and the most expensive in history. not all officials are in a celebratory mood russia's president lashes out at overspending and sacks a key figure behind sochi twenty forty. us military killing machine is set for a boost as an architect of america's drone strategy faces a confirmation hearing to be head of the cia. and growing anger in tunis here the prime minister pledges to reshuffle the government from the assassination of an opposition leader but his own islamist party rejects the plan.

well he's twenty four hours a day from the heart of moscow in a new studio here in the center of the city on kerry johnston well let's go straight to our top story now it's exactly one year and the opening of the twenty fourteen winter olympic games in russia special giant cloaks in the country's biggest cities have begun the countdown for the event that will be held in the black sea resort city of sochi the clock is also taking for the organizers say final preparations are on track and finishing touches are being done to make the games unforgettable wealth ortiz are also keeping a close eye on how work is being completed before such she becomes host to well hundreds of thousands of sportsmen and women and guests from around the globe or russian president vladimir putin has been personally checking the olympic venues and said he was generally happy about what he saw a little he did have some harsh criticism at times what's now talk to r.t. is a really good this could live here in the studio of course it's a. huge event for the world of course is it reveal things ready well according to

the official reports eighty percent of the infrastructure is ready at this point of course this is going to be an absolutely unique event not just because it's happening in the subtropical areas of actually it's the first olympic games ever to take place in subtropics and of course it's very interesting you have to understand that you have all these snow capped mountains you can see them right there you have the olympic venues and then fifteen minutes away you have the beach and this is actually victor's are actually from february a lot of people actually have been saying that you can pretty much swim or at least get a nice tan there so if you're sick of snowboarding or if you're tired of watching of the ski jumps you can always take a walk down the beach but this is going to be the most expensive olympic games in history at fifty one billion dollars there have been some delays in construction unfortunately that has been one of the main points of concern for the russian

president who came to take a look at the venue and make sure that all things or as they should be we have just one year live before the olympic games and he did exchange some words with some of the with some of the government officials and those words possibly did not leave everybody very happy. are there any cost overruns yes a serious increase in costs since they use their own funds for the construction phones. is financed by the funds of krisna police who's the shareholder of course upon your spare bank so it's largely finance at the expense of sperm bank yes and these cost overruns are paid for by sperm bank yes it's spending one of the costs of this whole facility cost what's the overall was it what your initial be recessing the amount of the loan. what's a rough estimate. initial price is one point two billion. in one point two billion has turned into eight billion yes well done good work let's move on. and

you have to understand that the reference to good job being done that of course was sarcasm in fact the man who is responsible for the scheme facilities who also happens to be the vice president of russia's olympic committee ahmed beloved a moment here that was just one of the post that he was holding he is actually being led to go from all of the polls that he's been holding as a way of punishment for a job that was not well done but again you have to understand that the olympics are happening and there's a lot of exciting things going down in sochi here as our team is very old farmer with more details. piece by piece sort she's a limp dick dream is coming together continues around the clock but with a year to go things are shaping up fast and the company in charge of construction has a simple message despite building everything from scratch russia will be ready. we

plan to introduce all the facilities before the games start training facilities are ready practically all of them of host to test competitions all hotels and olympic villages are in the final phase of construction being referred and furnished the show jewels to open in the autumn we plan to complete construction long before the end of the year so personal can train and managers can gain experience in providing a good service but achieving this goal has come at a staggering price heist in these games is costing around fifty billion dollars making them the most expensive in the intake history they cost ten times more than the last winter games in vancouver and ten billion dollars more than the beijing summer games however the results can already be seen and they are impressive if you do take a quick look around you can see what money can buy at the center of the olympic park which is six pennies all within a stone's throw of each other to host the curling the skating and the ice hockey

and this is the june in the qur'an the bolshoi i stay inside this past hockey arena is pristine and ready for use it will stay to the under eighteen will championships in april when the team does an international event that will test all in to their knees before the games begin the cycle of assault she twenty fourteen is hot cool your thought because they don't think park is down by the blacks in case there i'm cold because all the alpine events or take place alone forty kilometers away. it is a similar story that not much was here before but there are also couture resorts has sprung up from nowhere to become the home of alpine skiing. biathlon and cross-country courses have also been created along with the bumps like track and then there's something you can't fail to miss but if you make your way down the mountain will eventually come to hey one of the most dramatic sights at any winter

olympics the ski jumping the larger ramp on the left hand side is for the men on the smaller one on the right is for the women he will be competing for the very first time in this event at an olympics next year. linking the so-called mountain and coastal clusters has not been easy over five hundred kilometers of rain am rail lines have been laid and they have transformed so cheesy infrastructure that the city may believing the region will reap the benefits for years to come. our residents are aware of the conditions they have to face during changes especially on this scale we certainly have many inconveniences because there's not a single street in sochi without renovation going on the roads are regularly dug up which causes traffic jams all the time however the residents are aware that it's necessary for their future a brilliant future. so she has undergone huge change in just six years but the transformation is almost complete and the black sea resort believes it can and will

deliver against remember this time next year and. a soft cheek. from a drone strikes to torture techniques tough questions are ahead for barack obama's nominee for cia head that is a confirmation hearing in the senate john brennan is widely seen as an architect of u.s. drone strategy in an effort to avoid scrutiny around the bretons canada saying the u.s. president has even agreed to handover classified documents justifying the killing of american terror suspects abroad so after years of keeping it secret is out he's going to chicken reports from brennan's confirmation by broaden their horizons america's drone fleets. in the shadows know more drones are moving into the mainstream was drone makers in the u.s. military pushing to defend the killing machine drones are more properly titled remotely piloted vehicles allow us to do is to project capability without

projecting vulnerability in their revolutionising we're. allowing us to see and. from half a world away a major drone manufacturer lockheed martin has financed an hour long documentary on drones aired recently on u.s. public television carrying the technological capabilities of the killing machine from trailers like this pilots of the predator and its larger cousin the reaper have killed thousands of individual since two thousand and one using remotely piloted aircraft contrary to popular belief actually provides the greatest degree of ethical oversight for their use this young man in pakistan would probably disagree several of his family members died at the remote hands of a drone more than a thousand other civilians were reportedly killed by you. u.s. drone strikes in pakistan and yemen we find ourselves murdering people in many cases children with no evidence whatsoever that they're involved in any criminal or

terrorist activity the numbers should not come as a surprise considering the broad definition the obama administration gives us to who should be on their kill list the leaked memo on targeted assassinations on the u.s. justice department suggests the u.s. government can kill people even without evidence that they are actively plotting against america if you extend the logic or studio logic being proud by the white house now you come. lift you might say that we're in danger of going over we're getting very close to zero thought crimes that if somebody a u.s. citizen or otherwise is believed to be thinking something that could lead to actions against united states then this illogical logic would present the idea that it would be ok for the president to order that that person be killed despite the u.n. raising concerns about the legality of the use of drones the u.s.

is said to expand its remote control warfare setting up new drone bases across the world the latest announcement a new facility in asia where obama has redefined war there an intervention in libya he made the case that the war powers act in a private because there is no risk to american soldiers and so under that rationale he can expand the global war while in his state of the union address claiming that we don't need perpetual war for peace but it is perpetual war when you can drop bombs on any country and then claim that it's not worth john brennan often referred to as the architect of the administration's drone war how it's the new opportunities for the u.s. to wage wars without risking american lives there's another reason a targeted strikes can be a wise choice to strategic consequences that inevitably come with the use of force . as we have seen deploying large armies. broad won't always be our best offense all in all the u.s. now has around ten thousand drones in its fleet not all of them carry weapons of

course a lot of them are for surveillance both domestic and international there's a great push both from the administration and the drone makers to present them as america's next best thing john brennan if confirmed will soon be at the helm of the cia and no one doubts that under him the program will expand even further the goal is pretty much clear to be able to control the world with a remote control in washington i'm going to. what's another country ingolf to with an arrest some of the heaviest fighting in months has erupted in the syrian capital levels are attempting to take control of a key approach to the city center facing heavy government resistance as despite both sides saying they're willing to negotiate. and in britain the private messages sent between internet users could be deep rooted in the monitor and the government says it's to keep the country safe those stories just ahead for you.

the political crisis in tunisia is deepening as the ruling is the most party rejects the prime minister's move to dissolve the government and form an interim cabinet in the wake of fresh violent protests the latest wave of public unrest was unleashed by the assassination of chocolate and i had a secular opposition leader and a long time critic of the islamist dominated government but his death has sparked protests across the country with angry demonstrators in the capital clashing with riot police used tear gas to disperse the crowds many protesters believe the islamists were behind the assassination of calling for regime change slogans very similar to those that heralded the arab spring lose again michael analyst danny markey has told r.t. that no cabinet reshuffle can guarantee history will repeat itself. this is a calculus for more violence and more. of course unity with the hope of the arab spring we know is an area where you have the arab street little side any small

change you can create hatred within society and this is essentially a museum out where you have mass protests. we have many calls for the government to resign you have outrage public outrage against the regime which has been deemed committed by. close links with this if you cannot that this is in government but this really shows the arab spring is not necessarily going to force the change in a good it has been a force for aggression. has led to more backward policy to show the muslim brotherhood they really have. what they are and what they have done is to actually replace the regime supposing. they have continued the same the same regressive and negative policies which have been undertaken by the previous us. and of course we're always eager to hear your views on the stories we cover at r.t. dot com head to our online poll know this know what you think the outcome of the

latest bout of tunisian protests would be let's have a look at how opinion has been divided up so far today here we have it third of those who already voted the net to news it will plunge into further unrest around a quarter fer the latest upsurge of public unrest will lead to a government crackdown on protesters and about the same amount believe the country might see another revolution in just a little less on the contrary i think that the leadership is ready for political concessions of course we'll have more news and much more after a short break stay with us here in r.t. . we speak your language. news programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you. a little eternity bangle keep these stories.

here. that the spanish. visit. there are twelve cities in the united states in which half of the people with hiv aids lives with. over sixty two percent of those patients i diagnosed with this is a problem that frankly is substantially preventable it was like the big elephant in the room and nobody wanted to talk about they were really good public health campaigns that people were really focused on this problem you certainly should be able to. see a lot less human suffering. more

international stories for you now it's going to be a battle between the north and the south in brussels and he states on a collision course on the spending plans for next few years britain is the loudest voice among those calling for budget cuts something opposed by southern countries and the pendant on you funds well for more on these widening financial cracks that's cross say with the artes a test. live from brussels that's the second attempt. to agree on the budgets and some fierce debate expected i would imagine. well there is a lot of pessimism entering in this we've seen this already. bickering even before . the negotiation table and if we were to divide it to simplify. right now it would be between northern and southern countries you could say the wealthier nations versus those that actually depend more on funding on the one hand you have

countries like the u.k. germany the netherlands denmark these countries are supporting. david cameron being the most radical and controversial taking this he has been demanding since november last year in two thousand and twelve that was the first today is the second since that until now he's been demanding for cuts in brussels bureaucracy for instance he wants to reduce payments of officials here. in brussels officials he also wants to reduce their pensions for instance but on the other side you have those countries who are dependent on these forums and one of the loudest voices on this is. france now he is saying and pointing a finger at the u.k. say they want cuts but at the same time they are very protective of the so-called rebate this is the money that the u.k. gets back from the e.u. as a return for their payments on farm subsidies which the u.k. does not benefit from france benefits you can see

a lot of the national interests coming here to the forefront certainly not happy with what if you read between the lines would say hypocritical. rebate is worth three point five billion euros and is seen to be wanting to tackle that point also the u.k. is coming into this summit this is the first time since he announced that referendum that he said that he would pose the question of whether they should remain. twenty seven. twenty eight fifteen of course this is a possibility of a creating even more tension the cost benefit of. being a member of the e.u. interpreted by the other members. not being a team player in this regard and also as this talk is happening talking about budget cuts on the e.u. level we see the budget cuts on a more local ground level we've seen protests continuing even until today people very angry at the cuts imposed on them on their livelihoods on their pensions are

on their potential jobs while the e.u. cannot agree upon a budget of their own now just finally what are we going to see if there is no deal well first of all it is sending a very bad signal that these twenty seven countries cannot come together to take a step forward at a very crucial time when they really really have to not just for the sake of markets but for the sake of their citizens and what will happen is the e.u. will be forced from twenty fourteen to apply a provisional budget which is only about a twelfth of last year's budget very small amount and therefore that means delays of a lot of long term structural projects agricultural funding and this is a lot of economists if you were going around and around in circles the only thing that we should see here is they really have to show at least some sort of step forward that people are very pessimistic about. the reporting from brussels thank you. the british government is considering using so-called black boxes to

monitor private citizens internet they say in the interests of safety the move has been criticized as a point probably see. the deputy director of the big brother watch says the new measures would do nothing to catch people who pose a real security threat. the u.k. government seems to think that it's necessary to monitor the communications of every person in great britain rather than actually looking for the people who are actually committing crimes they're going to drive those people further and further underground of the internet and they're only going to capture. the innocent and the incompetent as far as i'm concerned not by any means saying that communications data isn't important but when you have the director general of m i five talking about the evidence that was used to make this spill and calling it pretty horowitz assumptions that we've been made that the m i five obviously going to need this

information and will react to this information if they're saying that this bill isn't based on fact it's based on fund the full. imitations of facts and this is why we need to go and have a very hard look at this bill get more evidence have a much further in-depth consultation to actually get the facts about what is needed and how it can be done. south korean internet megahit gangnam style seems to be facing some competition from gaza it turns out showing up on the web wasn't just for fun for the palestinian creators of this video clip the full story. seizing preflight nerves and getting into the holiday mood with a drink soon become illegal in russia the government is now considering a ban on alcohol consumption on passenger planes after a series of in-flight rules. used

today. these are the images the world seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day. syria's capital damascus has witnessed some of its most intense clashes in months rebels attacked government forces in the tent to seize control of the approaches to the city center where fighting came despite an earlier offer by the opposition leader and i was gutted to negotiate with the present ourselves deputy assad government could also be willing to talk that's according to its ally iran whose foreign minister was quoted that an. islamic summit whenever there are splits within the opposition makes to but it's unlikely even if they do bring down i said so says syria tribune editor in chief of the mohammed. it's just funny it's just like. the nicer ones did. you have

to. actually. try even when the you. listed. it's a black mark of. the movie. so normal be. because lucian is dreaming you believe that they can control the. regime they are doing the most important part these are princes and the other half will be defeated people they are not full of issues they are not markers for freedom they are just working with the coalition will only be able to do what its founder and main find thing. to do and if they don't do it they will lose the financing support so they have to do this and they don't know how to who and they cannot because they are not united and they don't have this interview was so it's

a big mess. moscow is denying claims by tokyo that two russian fighter jets and to a japanese airspace just off the northern island of hokkaido tokyo earlier lodged official protest in connection with the alleged intrusion that lasted less than a minute and sent its combat jets to meet what was said to be su twenty seven jets . russian military spokesman confirmed that the pacific navy fleet were performing a show due flights in the area so that no violation of airspace took place a similar incident happened just a year ago in japan scramble its fighter jets when several russian planes flew close to its territory but they too admitted they did not breach space what are some other international news in brief for you now. iran supreme leader ayatollah khomeini has rejected the u.s. saw for a direct talks over its nuclear program saying the two countries cannot negotiate

when tehran has a gun pointed out it comes just a day after washington tightened economic sanctions on iran and restricting cash from oil production u.s. ones president joe biden made the offer of one to one discussions last saturday. leader of hamas says he's in talks with palestinian president mahmoud abbas about forging a coalition government had mentioned that both parties are getting ready ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections and push the fattah movement headed by a bass out of the gaza strip in two thousand and seven spoke of conflict between the two sides. and one finds in australia are making their way across the south of tasmania but emergency services are bracing for worsening weather conditions authorities have called on some locals to move from inaccessible areas to the danger has passed its latest wave of fires comes after

a bushfire destroyed nearly two hundred properties last month. up ahead it's the kaiser port do stay with us here on r.t. .